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Tag: Chibok

  • Chibok: Protesters demand sack of presidential aides

    Chibok: Protesters demand sack of presidential aides

    Protesters of the #BringBackOurGirls (BBOG) advocacy have demanded for the sack or resignation of presidential aides or officials responsible for the #BringBackGoodluck2015 campaign banners.

    Leader of the group, Aisha Yusufu made the demand on Wednesday  in Abuja during the group’s  daily  gathering at the Unity Fountain.

    The group  said the aides  need to be held responsible and made to pay for the insensitivity meted out on the grieving Chibok parents on their  daughters abduction.

    BBOG blamed President Jonathan for waiting until Washington Post took up the issue to react, noting  that Nigerians and the Nigerian media had been condemning the banners for so long but the President ignored the complaint.

    Yusufu said that the group which is advocating for the return of over 200 girls of the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, regard the banners as insensitive and will request that the President offered an apology to Nigerians and learn to listen to the voice of the people.

    Her words, “Ordinarily there should be an apology and for those Government officials that where involved, should resign, I mean that is the right and proper thing to do because this was the height of insensitivity in every ramification that you look at it.

    “Parents are grieving and then somebody is using their grieve to mock them; it is something that not only should an apology be given but people should resign or be sacked. In this country we need to take responsibility of our actions because that is the worst thing that is really killing us in this country, a lot of people do anything because they know that they will get away with it.

    “They are not held accountable for what they have done but people need to be held accountable. Somebody made a mistake and he should pay for it.”

     

  • ‘We’ve secured admission for 57 escaped Chibok girls in U.S.’

    The Centre for Promotion of Ethics, Values, and National Integration (CENPEVNI), a Non Governmental Organisation, says it has secured admission for the 57 escaped Chibok schoolgirls  in the United States.

    The admission was secured through collaboration with other groups.

    The Executive Director of the group and Project Coordinator, Rehabilitation and Reintegration Outreach Mission (RROM), Dr. Mercy Sokomba, made this known in Abuja at a stakeholders’ interactive session on effective victim support strategies in Nigeria.

    She said offers for the completion of the girls’ education inclusive of scholarship have been made to RROM through Stephanos Foundation and international support groups of RROM.

    Sokomba said: “Some of our national and international partners are already participating in the ongoing rehabilitation and reintegration of the escaped girls and their 219 parents.

    “Through one of them, we have secured admission for the 57 escaped Chibok School girls from a school in the USA. We are now ready to take up some of the scholarship awards promised by some partners also from the USA.

    “However, we have initiated discussions with some leadership of the Chibok community and at the same point we will meet with them and their parents for consent.”

    She said the offer of admission and scholarship depended on the willingness of the girls to be ‘separated’ from their parents again after their abduction by the dreaded Islamic sect Boko Haram.

    Sokomba praised the efforts of the Federal Government in the fight against insurgency, while also praying for a quick solution to various insurgencies in the country.

    She pleaded for the safe return of the abducted Chibok girls abducted by Boko Haram in April,  as well as women and children in the sect’s enclave.

  • Presbyterian Church hails govt on Ebola

    Presbyterian Church hails govt on Ebola

    The Presbyterian Church of Nigeria has hailed the proactive response of the federal and state governments to the Ebola virus.

    But it said it wants measures to ensure that the disease is contained and eradicated.

    The church, in a communiqué at the end of its biennial General Assembly in Calabar, Cross River State, urged government to ensure that there was surveillance at the entry points into the country so that no new cases of the epidemic would be recorded.

    It called for the production and supply of experimental drugs for those already infected.

    The communiqué, signed by the Prelate and Moderator of the General Assembly, Prof. Emele Mba Uka and the newly-elected Principal Clerk, Rev. Eseme David William, welcomed the Federal Government’s initiative in setting up a special fund in aid of victims of the Boko Haram insurgency and other social upheavals.

    The church also set up a fund toward the rehabilitation of the Chibok girls when they are eventually rescued, saying this was in keeping with its spirit of Christian charity and in support of the President’s initiative.

    But it lamented the “seeming inability of the government to rescue the abducted girls and contain the Boko Haram insurgency.”

    On power supply, the church noted that despite government’s efforts at improving power supply by privatising the sector, power outages were still the order of the day in almost all parts of the country.

    It said: “It is embarrassing that consumers are paying heavily for the services not rendered. Government should put in place an effective mechanism to ensure creditable performance by the registered distribution companies. The Federal Government should set a timeline when Nigerians and corporate manufacturing consumers will get value for the privatisation of the energy sector.”

     

     

  • Day cleric wept for Chibok girls

    Day cleric wept for Chibok girls

    About four months after over 200 school girls were abducted in Chibok, Borno State, by Boko Haram insurgents, the founder, Omoluabi Network, Pastor Ladi Thompson, shares his thoughts with reporters in Lagos. It turned out an emotional encounter, reports DADA ALADELOKUN.

    It was an event to seek divine intervention in the plight of the innocent school girls abducted in Chibok, Borno State, over four months ago by Boko Haram insurgents. Tears flowed freely on the occasion.

    Reporters, who were there to get the latest  about the  girls, also caught the bug of fellow-feeling that momentarily tortured the man in Ladi Thompson, activist pastor and founder, Omoluabi Network, a non-governmental humanitarian body.

    “Who is that sane human being in this country today that is not worried to the marrow over the abuse and bondage of those children is languishing helplessly in God-knows-where? How about their traumatised parents? Why won’t one cry one’s heart out as a parent?” He asked as he went into momentary soliloquy of prayers for the girls. It was at his organisation’s Lagos office.

    Breaking his seeming silence over the girls’ “100 days in captivity and the future of Nigeria,” Thompson said: “The case of the Chibok girls is a grave concern that is of paramount importance to the history of a Nigeria. The issue must not be a platform for inconsiderate adventurism, political jobbery or insensitive mockery. It should be about concern for the missing girls, those who were kidnapped before and after them, their grieving parents and those that have died because of the shock; the relatives that have developed illnesses and diseases including psychological disorders and the ravaged communities that have been under siege since then.

    He said: “As a nation we must be educated to know that the satanic device that has swallowed our girls for 100 days is not in the same boat as the problems that were solved by Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jnr and other heroes of the non-violence advocacy. While there is need for us to pressure our government to acknowledge the satanic war form that is threatening our national future, it must not be done in way to deride or denigrate the Nigerian president, his government and the noble soldiers of the Nigerian Armed Forces. The real problem behind the Chibok attack is a different kettle of fish and cannot be resolved with a wrong medicine.”

    Affirming that the insurgents are Islamist ideologues seeking to destroy the Nigerian state to eradicate women’s rights, the political vote and religious plurality, he said that the mixture of global resurgence of Islamism with an ancient strain in the country is what produced the venomous hybrid known as the Boko Haram.

    He described Boko Haram is an “unrelenting, fascistic, vicious and amoral socio-economic-judicial-militaristic-financial-cultural-linguistic hydra, which is masked in a religious garb.

    “The level of intelligence at which this war is being waged seems to beyond the ability of the Nigerian mind! There are nations that would readily sponsor any group that will weaken the Nigerian government and divide opinions in the nation. I dare say that the “Bringbackourgirls” campaign needs to reconsider its strategy because the Boko Haram intelligentsia may have encouraged Shekau to taunt them publicly in order to help their campaign,” he said.

    The destiny of the kidnapped girls, he feared, is a pointer to the future of Nigeria if decisive actions are not taken in time, adding: “Creative campaigns have to be mounted to pressure the President Goodluck Jonathan-led government fully recognise the fact that we are in state of war. We need to evacuate all civilians from the war zone and concentrate on crushing the menace speedily.

    “Jonathan must be pressured into building bridges across all political divides and persuasions to forge an accord that can dispassionately solve this problem. He must create new machinery that will systematically weed out all the moles and compromised persons in high places. The new machinery must remove the religious cover of the Boko Haram to free the average Nigerian Muslim from needless pressure and join in the task of nation building.”

    Advising Nigerians to look inwards and stop expecting salvation from their colonial lords or any other world power, Thompson explained: “While there is no doubt that the southern half of Nigeria worships the very ground that Americans tread upon, we need to do a critical assessment as to whether the love is reciprocal. We must accept the fact that a large expanse of northern Nigeria worships the Arab culture with equal fervour.”

    “The mysterious dealings of the US state department in Nigeria have not helped matters either. Up until 2012, they seemed to see Boko Haram as a freedom-fighting group and they fought tooth and nail to prevent its Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) designation. Nigerians have to accept that salvation cannot come from abroad. Instead of tearing down and disrespecting Jonathan, we need to encourage, strengthen and pressure him to action.”

    “We expect the president to offer all his political opponents the olive branch so that individuals like the Osun State governor and many other Nigerian assets can work together on the same table. Governor Rauf Aregbesola in particular had been shouting himself hoarse on the danger that the unattended almajiris’ problems would eventually trouble Nigeria. But all hope is not lost,” he added.

    As a solution, Thompson said: “We must call for a formal recognition of the declaration of war that Boko Haram has been waging and suspend all political activities for a season to focus on defending the integrity of our nation and restoration of value to human worth. Nigeria should be the site where the global resurgence of Islamism will meet its Waterloo.”

    He, however, warned: “If we ignore the ominous signs in the horizon, Nigeria will be taken by surprise and the curtains will be drawn on the hopes of the West Africa’s giant.”

    Thompson, who said the Boko Haram won’t ever be totally defeated until the monster of corruption is tackled in Nigeria, urged the nation to come up with a partnership between government and the grassroots to engineer an Africanised socio-cultural solution to the monster. “By so doing, we will also carpet the dubious foreign interests that wish to distract Nigeria from the true nature of the Boko Haram,” he added.

    “Bodies like the Gabasawa Women & Children’s Initiative,” he advised, “should be encouraged because they have served in the North Eastern states for more than a decade, sponsoring children and comforting victims irrespective of creed, tongue or religious persuasions. Applying love with skill and applying pressure with surgical precision we shall surely overcome.”

     

  • 2015: Jonathan spurns ultimatum

    2015: Jonathan spurns ultimatum

    The Presidency joined issues yesterday with the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), which gave President Goodluck Jonathan an October deadline to rescue the over 200 Chibok school girls or forfeit his 2015 re-election bid.

    The NEF demanded also an end to Boko Haram’s insurgency.

    The over 200 Chibok school girls were abductedby the Boko Haram sect on April 15. They have since been in captivity, even as  the government insists that it knows where they are being kept but would not do anything to put their lives at risk.

    Also yesterday, the Igbo Redemption Group (IRG) condemned the ultimatum.

    In a statement, Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President, Dr. Reuben Abati, said the NEF is misguided and mis-advised. He described their contribution as misguided.

    He said: “Nobody is in a position to give the President of Nigeria an ultimatum. For anybody to pretend that they can give the President and the federal government of Nigeria ultimatum, such persons are engaging in a game of self delusion.

    “Beyond that, the kind of statements they make are incorrect because it is very clear even to the blind , the deaf and the dumb that this administration has made the fight against insurgency and terrorism a high priority level engagement for the government.

    “President Jonathan has personally ensured that the war against terrorism is topmost on the international agenda and that Boko Haram has become the focus of international outreach against any form of terrorism, evil acts, assault on our common humanity and civilisation.”

    “If the Northern Elders Forum were to be a patriotic group, they would be expressing support as members of the National Assembly have done again and again and as other enlightened groups in this society have done again and again.”

    “For Mr. President’s efforts to bring the nightmare of terrorism to an end, if the members of the elders forum were to be patriotic, they would be carrying the flag against Boko Haram, they would be directing their frustration at terrorists and they would be speaking with one voice to say terror is unacceptable, to say that terror is evil, they would be saying that they as ‘elders’ are prepared to support the effort of government at all levels to ensure that terrorists, both at the government level and at the community level are brought to their knees and that the affected parts of the country are made safe for everybody.

    “But they are not patriotic. Hence, they have opted for a position that can cause disaffection, a position that can cause division, a position that flies in the face of the truth. They are not in a position to accuse this government of incompetence and it is not true that there is deep-seated corruption.”

    “If there is anything, President Jonathan has been combating corruption, has strengthened the institutions to make corruption difficult and to, over a long time, eradicate corruption. He has placed much greater emphasis on efficiency and service delivery.”

    “So, I think that the Northern Elders Forum is misguided, is mis-advised and I dare add that that statement, if indeed is a statement that emanated as a group position rather than the wild imagining of two persons, then I will add that it was an irresponsible contribution.”

    The Igbo Redemption Group said the NEF  position was “unreasonable”, “unpatriotic”, divisive and “unfortunate”.

    IRG leader Chief Delly Ajufo told reporters in Abuja that the northern elders’ position had confirmed the suspicion that the kidnap of the girls was meant to prevent President Jonathan from seeking re-election.

    “Statements like these coming from people who cannot lay claim to any significant contribution to the growth and development of Northern Nigeria is nothing but a mark of desperation which we hopefully assume does not represent the views of right thinking leaders of the North.

    “The latest attempt by the Northern Elders Forum to link the 2015 presidential bid of Dr Goodluck Jonathan to ending the Boko Haram insurgency and producing the Chibok girls is unacceptable and will only spell doom for the whole country.

    “We, therefore, call on genuine leaders of the North, including traditional rulers, political and business leaders, as well other patriotic Nigerians to rise up in condemnation of these desperate parasitic politicians who do not mean well for either the North or Nigeria as a whole.”

     

  • Chibok girls: North’s elders give October ultimatum

    Chibok girls: North’s elders give October ultimatum

    ‘Jonathan should bring back girls or forget 2015’

    ‘Probe attacks on Buhari, killings of Shi’ite men’

    President Goodluck Jonathan got yesterday an ultimatum  from the North – bring back the Chibok girls and stop Boko Haram or forget 2015.

    The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) issued a deadline – October- for the conditions to be met.

    For over three months, more than 200 girls abducted by the fundamentalist Boko Haram sect have been in captivity. Eleven of their parents have died, following the trauma. The government says it knows where the girls are, but it is being careful not to   do anything that will put their lives at risk.

    The thinking of the elders is that the military can defeat the Boko Haram terrorists – if, indeed, the government wants to subdue to sect.

    “We are convinced that most of these conflicts are being engineered to weaken the North politically and economically by interests which intend to exploit such weaknesses for electoral benefits,” the NEF said yesterday.

    The forum spoke in Kaduna through two of the members, Solomon Dalung, a lawyer and Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed.

    THE NEF said it had just concluded a major review of the state of the nation. It resolved to speak to help resolve current political, economic and security challenges facing the nation, and facilitate the emergence of a more united, secure and prosperous nation out of its present limitations.

    Said the elders: “The security situation in our nation today represents the most serious threat to our individual and collective lives in our entire history. The reality is that the threats posed by what appears to be an insurgency that has many manifestations and defies a clear and consistent identity is growing due to the absence of a clear national consensus over its nature, and it solutions.

    “The lack of a strong will at the level of the Presidency to fight it, as well as deep-seated corruption and incompetence in governments and in the management of our security challenges, has allowed a band of terrorists to take and hold vast parts of our land and populations hostage while every citizen lives in fear that they will be its next victim.

    “We also reject the notion that multiple internal security challenges such as attacks on villages, ethno-religions conflicts

    and banditry springing up by the day in many parts of the North are all a coincidence. Indeed, we are convinced that most of these conflicts are being engineered to weaken the North politically and economically by interests which intend to exploit such weaknesses for electoral benefits.

    “In the light of our firm conviction that the insurgency and related security challenges pose threats to the 2015 elections and the survival of our nation, we strongly advise President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to bring an end to the insurgency in all its manifestations and produce the Chibok girls before the end of October, 2014.

    “The circumstances under which our fellow citizens in and around Gwoza in Borno State in particular live and die will not be tolerated by  any people who have a government and a leader sworn to defend them, and they must be reversed immediately.”

    If President Jonathan fails to end the insurgency, Nigerians will be left with the only conclusion that he has forfeited his right to ask for their mandate beyond 2015.

    Said the NEF: “The Forum notes that the state of security and economic challenges of the North are deteriorating, in spite of its wealth of leaders and elders who should use their God-given privileges, power and influence to affect a reversal of these dangerous trends. It is no secret that the vast majority of Northerners lament their marginalisation, insecurity and poverty, and blame it in large part on the inability or unwillingness of its past and present leaders to utilise all access to power which they enjoy, to bring us redress and relief. General Yakubu Gowon, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, General Muhammadu Buhari, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, General Abdussalami Abubakar, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Architect Namadi Sambo, General T.Y Danjuma and all retired Chief Justices of Nigeria from the North represent grossly under-utilised assets of the North.

    “The NEF joins millions of Northerners in appealing to these leaders to raise their levels of involvement in the fortunes of our region in every endeavour or fora they are involved. In these difficult days when every hand must be on deck, if these leaders cannot visibly help to transform the fortunes of the North in the next few months, they will leave northerners with the damaging impression that they have abandoned the region and the people to its seemingly irreversible decline and ultimate destruction.”

    The forum also called on all leaders and political parties to demonstrate highest levels of commitment to the rule of law and the demands of the electoral process. “At all cost, the 2015 elections must be free and fair. This means that any threat which may provide a cover for militarising the electoral process must be eliminated before the elections. Every part of Nigeria must participate in these elections, and no citizen should be deprived of his right to vote under any excuse,” the forum said.

    On the alleged clash between soldiers and Shite members in Zaria, Kaduna State, the NEF called on President Jonathan to set up a Judicial Panel to investigate the incident where over 30 members of the group, including three sons of its leader, were allegedly killed.

    The forum said: “The internal investigations by the military in an event in which soldiers are involved will not meet the minimum standards of fairness and acceptability. The Forum reminds the nation that it was the murder of Muhammad Yusuf by the Nigeria Police in 2009 that formed the major point of escalation in the activities of the group(s) known today under the generic term of Boko Haram.

    “We also call for a thorough investigation into the attempted assassination of General Muhammadu Buhari and Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi, and the publication of the outcome of these investigations.”

  • Chibok girls: Expert advocates security education

    AN educationist, Alhaji Jamiu Idris, has called on the Federal Government to integrate national and personal security into the curriculum of Civic Education.

    Jamiu, who once served as the Secretary of Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Lagos wing, said this while reacting to the abduction of the Chibok girls by the Boko Haram sect.

    He said: “It is over 100 days that these children have been seized by Boko Haram and I want to suggest that the fight against terrorism should be taken to classrooms where every pupil will be taught how to identify and guard against the incursion of any kind of insurgency.”

    Condemning the serial bomb attacks by the sect, which have claimed many lives and property  in the north, Idris said security should be built around the students by regularly updating the education curriculum with new information about security and the antics of Boko Haram and other terrorists.

    “If Boko Haram members could stroll to a school and seize more than 200 girls in a jiffy, then the Federal Government must do more than just deploying soldiers or anti-bomb squad in the country. Government must provide employment for teeming jobless youths while also sensitising the students against terrorism,” he said.

    Idris, now secretary, NUT, Ekiti State wing, explained that though the teachers had no expertise to fight terrorism, they could help the government enlighten the society and schools about personal and national security.

    “Most of the Boko Haram members are youths who have no jobs. Some of them are students who do not have the right education. Everybody has a role to play in this. We should not politicise the fight against Boko Haram. It is a national problem that all of us must fight. I know that Lagos is doing a lot of sensitisation among the pupils and we are doing the same in Ekiti State. This must go round the country to save the life of our children,” Idris said.

    He called on teachers and pupils to always raise the alarm whenever they notice any strange movement around their schools and quickly report to appropriate authorities to take action.

    “While we are waiting for the peaceful release of the Chibok girls, I think it is a proper thing to do if the government can vigorously take the campaign to schools,” he added.

     

  • Chibok: We’re tired of waiting, say protesters

    Chibok: We’re tired of waiting, say protesters

    Campaigners for the rescue of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls, under the aegis of #BringBackOurGirls, have said they are tired that the innocent girls remain in Boko Haram captivity, 113 after their abduction.

    They said the members of the movement have put their lives on the hold for 98 days, asking the government to perform its constitutional duties.

    They regretted that rather than empathise, the government has been censuring the group for its patriotism for fellow Nigerians.

    The group noted that although they cry and despair for the Chibok girls, they would not give up the hope for the girls’ return.

    The campaigners feared that something bad might happen to the girls, if they stopped fighting for their rescue.

    One of the leaders of the group, Bukky Shonibare, spoke yesterday at the 98th day of the campaigners’ daily sitting.

    She explained that though the protesters were tired of the authorities’ non-response, the group would continue to stand for the Chibok girls until they are rescued.

    Shonibare said: “It’s been 113 days and the girls are not yet back, it’s so discouraging that we continue to speak about the same thing and yet no response, I am tired of working on strategies.

    “There are days that we are weakened by the discouragement, we cry and we despair but we will not give up because the day we give up on the Chibok girls, what becomes of us?” She asks.

    She also said: “Each and everyone of us for the past 98 days have put our lives on the hold until our girls are brought back alive, each day I wake up with the good that something good will happen and our girls will return but yet nothing and instead the people saddled with the responsibility of returning the girls turn around pointing fingers at us and calling us names. We will not give up for the girls and will continue to stand.”

    Another member, Dino Malaye said: “Those of us coming here everyday are not here for the lack of things to do. It’s because we have a conscience. We care for these girls and are pained by their continued captivity.

    “If you are a Nigerian and not standing up for the release of these innocent girls, I honestly don’t know what you could possibly be standing for.”

     

     

  • A lying presidency

    A lying presidency

    • Why would the Federal Govt lie that it did not give money to the Chibok girls’ parents?

    When a country’s presidency speaks, its voice should be like that of the oracle. Its yes should be yes and its no, no. Unfortunately, the Nigerian presidency, like most other things and places characteristically Nigerian, is becoming notorious for lying. The latest of such lie from Nigeria’s seat of power has to do with the monetary gift reportedly given to the parents of the Chibok girls abducted by Boko Haram on April 15, and those of them that escaped, when they visited the Presidency on July 22.

    To start with, it is quite shameful that it took the intervention of a teenage Pakistan girl, Malala Yousafzai, to wake President Goodluck Jonathan up to his responsibility on the abducted girls. But, the allegation that, in his attempt to obey the directive of the teenager, the President committed a presidential blunder by giving money to his visitors deserves more than a cursory attention. The matter has rightly been the subject of unending comments since the #BringBackOurGirls campaigners leader and former Minister of Education, Mrs Oby Ezekwesili, tweeted that the Federal Government offered N100 million to the distressed Chibok parents.

    More disgusting is that since the issue was made public, the presidency has been giving Nigerians the impression that there is no iota of truth in it. Both the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Reuben Abati, and the Senior Personal Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, have denied that any money changed hands.

    But these denials run counter to the claims of the beneficiaries and the Kibaku Area Development Association (KADA), the group representing the Chibok people in Abuja. According to the group, the Federal Government gave the parents and the escaped girls only N22.4million and not N100million. In other words, ‘there is no smoke without fire’, as they say.

    The money, according to KADA, was brought by the senior special assistant to the president on special duties to the hotel where the visitors lodged, who told the girls that the government had sent them N100, 000 each. Sixty-one of the 122 parents who came got N200, 000 each; while 51 others got N100, 000 each. Because the calculations were wrong, the remaining 10 parents left empty-handed.

    Predictably, it was the distribution of the money that led to a row among the affected parents, with some of them complaining that they had been shortchanged by the community’s leaders. “I was not able to go to Abuja; they chose some people from among us. Some received N100,000, some received N200,000, some received N300,000. Those of us in the village were given  N7,000. This is not a thing of joy. What we want are our girls to be brought back home”, one of them reportedly said.

    It is extremely baffling why the Federal Government resorted to telling a blatant lie, like the one it told the nation and the international community that it knows where the abducted girls are. It is a pity that, through the negligence and incompetence of the government, these girls have spent over 100 days in Boko Haram captivity without the slightest hope that they would ever be brought back to reunite with their parents. Yet, all we hear often from the President is that “we know where the girls are, and we will bring them back to their parents soonest”.

    When we remember that President Nixon of the U.S.A. resigned in 1974 to stave off impeachment because he lied to the American people in what has become known as the ‘Watergate scandal’, we should view with all seriousness the lie by the Presidency this time around. It is one lie too many. Or, could it be that some officials, as usual, profited from this filthy lucre? The Presidency owes Nigerians an explanation on this untoward and fraudulent denial of the undeniable.

     

     

  • Save this nation from collapse

    Save this nation from collapse

    Indeed, Nigeria is a blessed country and we, Nigerians, are blessed people. A country blessed by God needs to walk along God’s own path of Faith, Hope and Love. This is done through her citizens, though now, many Nigerians tend not to know the path they are following. The recent happenings in Nigeria give a responsible person serious concern and one feels terribly worried with the daily sad stories in our land. Apart from the war against the Boko Haram insurgency, we are also faced with the newly introduced war of impeachment as a means of capturing political power at all cost.

    Thus, from the different happenings in our land, we can now see that there are people in our nation today who, by their utterances and actions, are not happy to see the continued existence and growth of  Nigeria. Such people have their script, their selfish and destructive agenda, and they are playing out this script ruthlessly without taking into consideration the generality of the people. We remind them that they cannot continue to have their way at will. Really, there is a limit to everything. Definitely, there is nemesis too.

    It is over 100 days now that our over 200 children, God’s special gifts to humanity,  (now referred to as Chibok Girls) have been abducted by the Boko Haram insurgents. Unfortunately, the search for these school children in captivity is more of a talk show and trading of blames than real action. While all this is going on, some of the traumatised parents of these children are dying. There was a report that 11 parents have died already.

    Still on the search for the Chibok children, the father of this state opened Nigeria to the comity of nations on the pretext of helping to rescue the children from captivity. With this decision, is our country still well secured?

    Now, the same father of the nation is asking the National Assembly to grant his loan request of $1bn to fight insurgency. Different people and groups are asking the National Assembly not to grant the loan request of President Goodluck Jonathan.

    Some people are even insinuating that the president’s request could be in preparation for the 2015 General Elections. On our part too, we are asking for the concrete explanation and the rationale for this loan at this critical period. Our military personnel need to be well mobilized before emphasizing on hardware. No hungry and angry military can fight any war.

    In the same way, some people are also alleging that former President Olusegun Obasanjo ordered his then Minister of Defence, Lt. Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (Rtd),to retire some military top brass on the pretext of curbing coup plotting and avoiding further coup in Nigeria. People are now saying that with the high degree of insurgency and their seemingly daily strikes, such military top brass would have been helpful in the war against the Boko Haram insurgency.

    On elections, the reported ‘landslide’ of the recent Ekiti State Governorship Election of Saturday, June 21, may be a gateway to mistrust in electoral process in this nation and it tends to be a gateway to bloodshed in Nigeria as well. Already, there are indications that Osun State people are getting ready for the Governorship Election of Saturday, August 9. They are not prepared to be intimidated nor short-changed.

    Also, we are surprised to be experiencing the frequent impeachment of state governors, particularly from one political party in the country just immediately after the Ekiti State gubernatorial election, is an invitation to chaos and anarchy. What is of great concern is the silence of the father of the nation in all these series of impeachment. All those concerned in the dangerous trend must be called to order.

    In fact, the present trend is a reminder of the Third-Term Agenda of former President Obasanjo. We remember the story of Dr Peter Odili, the former governor of Rivers State, who wished to be the President of Nigeria. President Obasanjo administration used the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to intimidate Dr Odili out of the presidential race.

    The same style is now being used by the present administration. With the impeachment of Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State by the State House of Assembly, EFCC has declared Nyako wanted. The same EFCC which is supposed to be waging total war against corruption is busy withdrawing the cases against the people charged for corruption. This is for political reasons and it depends on the party such people belong. This means that if Nyako declares for the ruling party today, EFCC will close the case against him and he will become worthy ‘material’ for future election. Is this how to win a war against corruption?

    A stitch in time saves many, not just nine. Thus, the government must face the Boko Haram insurgency and the daily bombings with sincere mind instead of focusing its attention on the 2015 Election. Nigerians are getting tired of the various messages of condolence and sympathy by the government. Now is the time for real and purposeful action. We must note that if there is no Nigeria today, there can never be 2015 election.

    We have no other country, but this country, Nigeria. We must all salvage it together. We also enjoin those who think they can destroy this country through their selfish interest and action to desist. May God save this nation from untimely collapse.

     

    • Cardinal Okogie is Archbishop Emeritus of Lagos.